The life and experiences of a community college philosophy teacher, department chair and former debate coach.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

and they found their people...

We are, just now, done with our third tournament of the year. There are quite a few more to go, one more tournaments this semester, one over break and quite a few between January and March. Already, my students are making friends on the circuit and talking about what nice people they are meeting.

and it is true --

Kind of like travelling with someone who hasn't done much travelled in the past, watching a new team find new friends in the debate community is a lot of fun. They remind me of why the debate community engaged me 10 years ago and why I will miss all of this when I'm done coaching.

In particular, Sunshine has found her people. She doesn't fit in with our traditional student population -- she's nearly 30 and engaged in what is going on in the world. She's very verbal and excited about geeky things like school. Clearly, the 18-20 year-old stoner/party animal doesn't get Sunshine. Debate geetks get Sunshine. She's contemplating doing speech events just to make sure she's a better scholarship candidate, and to be sure she's able to compete no matter what...

I think our November/January break is going to be hard on Sunshine--- she's going to go into debate withdrawl. I feel for her, the debate DTs are pretty harsh.